Al1701
Series
Starving Meteorologist
Posts: 2,073
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Post by Al1701 on Aug 21, 2013 6:13:20 GMT -8
After spending time in a debate over the Ask Princess Molestia blog and listening to people say it's funny and well done, I'm just about ready to give up on this fandom and writing pony. I've written many stories, but they don't get any attention. I pour my heart and soul into developing the character's complexities beyond what they were in the G1 show to tell a compelling story about them. I develop the world both in the story and out so I have a set of ground rules to follow. I plan, I write, and all that work is ignored.
Yet some tasteless bastard can turn Celestia into an abusive sex fiend and become a hit? He doesn't need to be funny at all, he just has to be obscene, and people come in droves to see it? He uses tired old cliches and over the top depictions of sexual abuse, and people call it hilarious? Is that what really sells in this fandom?
And it's not just Molestia. It seems like shock fiction is what gets attention across the board. Ask Pinkamena Diane Pie is the same thing only with murder.
And places like FiMfiction are laden with clopfics and grimdark. No one seems to write stories that even resemble the brand at all.
I can't lower myself to do this kind of scrap. I could make Wind Whistler into Jack the Ripper, but I won't because I have standards. That probably wouldn't sell either because it would require complexity.
Someone talk me down.
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Zero
Series
Somethings are worth fighting for
Posts: 1,338
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Post by Zero on Aug 21, 2013 12:36:43 GMT -8
Everyfandom has a dark side ALL of them. Im sure the same was said for the Harry Potter, LOTR, Star Trek, hell I bet even Avatar had this treatment.
You have standards thats fine you dont have to lower your self to anything. All I can say is look at the stuff you like about it and ignor the stuff you dont like.
Molestia seem to just be a joke that got out of hand as for Pinkamena she had a personality change in one epidsode and she was made into to some pychopath.
There are good things and bad things about fandoms so dont worry about them or let them get to you
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Al1701
Series
Starving Meteorologist
Posts: 2,073
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Post by Al1701 on Aug 21, 2013 17:10:28 GMT -8
It just seems like this fandom doesn't care about quality writing anymore. They seem more interested in how outrageous you can be or feed the popular memes. It's disheartening.
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Post by djlamar2 on Aug 21, 2013 19:20:01 GMT -8
A1 I like your ideas. Their great . Don't let people dishearten you. If I did I would have quit making my fan series years ago.
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Zero
Series
Somethings are worth fighting for
Posts: 1,338
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Post by Zero on Aug 22, 2013 11:22:32 GMT -8
It just seems like this fandom doesn't care about quality writing anymore. They seem more interested in how outrageous you can be or feed the popular memes. It's disheartening. In all fandoms there are those who wish to take it in a direction that they want to. If they all where to stick to the origonal consept then it wouldnt be interesting, ok some fics are just bad and written purly for shock value but there is some that are grate to read. Dont let it get to you you have to take the rough with the smooth, the rocks with the diamonds, the Gold with the iron.
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Al1701
Series
Starving Meteorologist
Posts: 2,073
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Post by Al1701 on Aug 22, 2013 14:04:51 GMT -8
I tried to read some of the featured stories on FiMFiction. I was reading something that I thought would be about mourning a lost loved one but it turn out the dearly departed had turned into killer cyborg. What a bait and switch.
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Zero
Series
Somethings are worth fighting for
Posts: 1,338
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Post by Zero on Aug 22, 2013 15:05:26 GMT -8
somethink thats cleaver....but it wouldnt make any scence
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Post by sunstar on Aug 22, 2013 21:30:15 GMT -8
I feel bad for the really talented writers who value their work by reviews. While reviews are nice to get, I go by number of hits instead. I have a story with four reviews and over 1.5K hits. Another story has 51 reviews and over 4.5K hits. Don't be so down on yourself. All authors go through a period of feeling undervalued. I did. I just kept writing what I liked. I still write all the time, but with being a professional author as well as a volunteer ghost writer, I just don't have the time to write fanfics anymore.
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Post by weirdraptor on Aug 23, 2013 12:02:23 GMT -8
What sunstar said. This happens to every writer from time to time. Don't let the crazier bronies get to you. Just write what you want to. Write what you love. The only way you will ever get readers to like what you write is if you're pleased with what you write. I appreciate your work. It has heart. It has wit. So just don't give up. Sooner or later, there'll be a break.
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Al1701
Series
Starving Meteorologist
Posts: 2,073
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Post by Al1701 on Aug 23, 2013 12:50:07 GMT -8
Hopefully. I don't get many hits either, but maybe some bronies will come to appreciate my work.
Another problem I have is I don't like writing for the Mane 6 to tell you the truth. I would probably get a lot more attention if I wrote stories about them. However, they really don't speak to my kind of writing. The more I've delved into their characters, and more I've realized they're not as complex and deep as people make them out to be, they're just loud (and by loud I mean like a shirt with a bunch of bright colors loud.) And most fanfic writers write them as even louder than the show (or twist their personalities into something unrecognizable.) Many of the more noteworthy ponies of G1 were just as complex as the Mane 6 but were more subtle in both how they were written and performed.
Sarah Partridge > Tara Strong, Katie Lay > Andrea Libman, Nancy Cartwright > Ashleigh Ball, Michael Reaves > Meghan McCarthy and M.A. Larson COMBINED! May the bronies come and burn me at the stake for my blasphemy.
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Post by weirdraptor on Aug 23, 2013 16:28:19 GMT -8
I have to disagree with that standpoint. I'm also very familiar with the G1 and G4 personalities and have come to very different conclusions, but I won't argue with you about it.
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Al1701
Series
Starving Meteorologist
Posts: 2,073
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Post by Al1701 on Aug 23, 2013 16:54:08 GMT -8
I'm actually interested to hear your opinion. It might improve my mood about writing for the Mane 6 if I get a second opinion on them.
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Zero
Series
Somethings are worth fighting for
Posts: 1,338
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Post by Zero on Aug 23, 2013 16:58:35 GMT -8
Or you could do your own story with interaction with the main cast.
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Al1701
Series
Starving Meteorologist
Posts: 2,073
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Post by Al1701 on Aug 23, 2013 17:22:54 GMT -8
Perhaps.
I just think the Mane 6 were built for a domestic slice of life environment. Their strengths and flaws really work with those kinds of stories. They just seem out of the element on an adventure, especially the adventures I write. I fear I'll smash them all into tiny little pieces physically, mentally, and emotionally. I feel like I can write rougher with the G1 ponies.
Equestria itself also really doesn't work for me. It's too safe and controlled. I prefer the exotic and dangerous landscapes G1 introduced us to with bizarre flora and fauna not can be dangerous or beneficial and the ponies have to figure out if they're dealing with friend or foe.
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Post by weirdraptor on Aug 23, 2013 17:53:05 GMT -8
Alright, then. I'll use Twilight and Wind Whistler as my example, then. I'll give a complete rundown of both characters from my viewpoint.
Twilight Sparkle, initially considered the "mane" adorkable heroine of the show and our audience surrogate during the time she and we were becoming familiarized with Ponyville. She is a unicorn (later becoming an alicorn) from Canterlot. She is Princess Celestia's prize pupil and started off as an anti-social bookworm who thought that she didn't have time for friendship, what with her studies and over-achieving tendencies. So she was less than thrilled at first when it was suggested that she get away "from those dusty old books" and make some friends. She does end up giving a shot, and it works out. Twilight has a natural talent for magic that goes far beyond what most unicorns are capable of and was even a child prodigy. She is very intelligent, she's (usually) level-headed, and organized to the point of OCD sometimes. She's the de facto leader of the main group, though her neuroses sometimes get in the way.
She has a tendency to get over-excited about things, and sometimes even has a major freak out over little things. She also tends to serve as the show's Agent Scully, despite being a purple unicorn with magic. However, in spite of her cynicism, haughty, and grumpy bear leanings, she still is still the Element of Magic/Friendship, and has over time grown out of her old, sour self. She is the one who resisted being discorded for the longest. She's also good at reading people to a surprising degree. She was the first to figure out that that wasn't really Cadence in the Royal Wedding.
Twilight is fiercely loyal and when it comes down to it, will act very bravely in the face of danger (even if she's screaming while doing it). That said, do not threaten her friend, do not disrespect Princess Celestia, do not mess with the books, and never tell her something is just a test. She will hurt you. Beware the nice ones.
Back to Discord: What finally makes Twilight give in his effect on her mind is she and her friends' failure to defeat him after the others have been discorded, after which they all promptly abandon her after a long string of incidents where they treated her like dirt (acting eerily like vicious real life bullies, in fact). She has a completely breakdown in the form of giving up into depression and slinks off pitifully while her enemy celebrates before she's left earshot. It's not until a desperate attempt by Princess Celestia that she's reminded that friendships are worth fighting for and she gets her spunk back and becomes un-discorded.
On her initial haughty leanings: Twilight was a bit of a snot early on, but get a the lighter and softer version of humble pie. It started when Celestial seemingly blew her off and told her to go to Ponyville to inspect the Summer Sun Celebration, AKA, sending her off to deal with mundane errands. She meets the other ponies in her future group of friends, invoking several humorous city mouse situations. Then she goes on an adventure with them, and learns that perhaps she was wrong to coop herself up in the library all those years. And that was just the start of her character development. In the end, she decides she prefers the quiet Ponyville to busy big city life where everything is smaller and more personal.
At times, Twilight can be a bit of a control freak, though she's not overtly overbearing. It's just that her attention to detail and stubbornly being set in her ways leads to a lot of nagging. You can just ask Spike to confirm that one.
All of this is mixed with occasional diztiness, anal retentiveness, snark, clumsiness, and other quirks that makes for an interesting character with a determined, keen (if sometimes, one-track) mind who knows exactly what she wants out of life. She holds both herself and others to high standards, even to the point of unintentional insensitivity sometimes. Of course, that last part of mostly wrought from having poor social skills, thanks to her self-imposed friendless background.
In general, I would say that Twilight has more faucets than Wind Whistler does. I'm not going to call her a flat character, because she's not. She's calm, collected, intelligent, well-read, soft spoker, humble, and calculating. Until the cool exterior is a good heart and a pony that really does care for her friends and is as fiercely loyal as Twilight any day. Her voice, rational reasoning, and actions display a lot of maturity as opposed to the silliness around her (exceptions being Galaxy and Magic Star).
I could talk all day about Twilight's character traits, but I don't think Wind Whistler's would last beyond one conversation. Of course, I can only speak for myself.
As for which voice actor is better. I like both Tara Strong and Sarah Partridge equally. They both play their characters brilliantly, in my opinion.
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